Vorinostat may stop the growth of cancer cells by blocking some of the enzymes needed for their growth. Giving the drug in different ways may kill more cancer cells. This randomized phase II trial is studying two different schedules of vorinostat to see how well they work in treating patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

Confirmed Complete Response (CR) Rate [ Time Frame: Up to 2 years ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

The confirmed complete response rate was estimated by the number of participants with CR divided by the total number of evaluable participants.

According to the International Working Group (IWG) Criteria for response in AML, to be considered a CR, the following must be met for at least 4 weeks: ANC > 1500/mL, platelets > 100000/mL, no circulating blasts, bone marrow cellularity >20% (biopsy), trilineage maturation, < 5% bone marrow blasts, no auer rods and no extramedullary disease.

Time to Progression (TTP) for each patient will be calculated as the number of days from date of registration to either date when disease progression was documented or date of last evaluation without disease progression. The TTP distribution will be estimated using the method of Kaplan-Meier

Overall survival (OS) was defined as the time from registration to death of any cause. Surviving patients were censored at the date of last follow-up. The median OS with 95% CI was estimated using the Kaplan Meier method.

Time to Treatment Failure (TTF) [ Time Frame: Duration of treatment (up to 17 cycles) ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]

Time to treatment failure (TTF) was defined as the time from registration to until the date of treatment discontinuation of any reason. Patients receiving treatment at the time of analysis were considered censored. The median TTF with 95% CI was estimated using the Kaplan Meier method.

Patients receive oral vorinostat (SAHA) once a day on days 1-21. In both arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 17 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Drug: vorinostat

Given orally once daily

Other Names:

L-001079038

SAHA

suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid

Zolinza

Experimental: Arm II (thrice daily vorinostat)

Patients receive oral SAHA three times a day on days 1-14. In both arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 17 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

Drug: vorinostat

Given orally three times daily

Other Names:

L-001079038

SAHA

suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid

Zolinza

Detailed Description:

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Determine the toxicity and the proportion of complete remissions associated with two different treatment schedules of vorinostat (SAHA) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Determine the toxic effects of SAHA in this study population. II. Examine for preliminary evidence of re-expression of silenced genes in leukemic blasts in response to SAHA.

OUTLINE: This is a multicenter, randomized study. Patients are stratified according to disease status (relapsed vs untreated). Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 treatment arms.

ARM I: Patients receive oral vorinostat (SAHA) once a day on days 1-21. In both arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 17 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

ARM II: Patients receive oral SAHA three times a day on days 1-14. In both arms, treatment repeats every 21 days for up to 17 courses in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.

After completion of study treatment, patients are followed periodically for up to 2 years.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 44 patients will be accrued for this study.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years and older (Adult, Senior)

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

Diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), meeting 1 of the following criteria:

Relapsed AML in the following categories:

Good-risk cytogenetics [inv(16), t (8;21)] in second relapse or in first relapse following a remission of < 12 months

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (M3) in second relapse or greater AND must have relapsed following both tretinoin-anthracycline-based therapy and arsenic trioxide-based therapy

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00305773